me.phillipoertel.com

published 4 months ago (12.07.2009 15:52)

Updated is-gd for Ubiquity

See this post for a description of Ubiquity.

I adapted the script for the API changes introduced with 0.5, and put the script on github.

Posted in firefox, css & javascript, coding | Tags ubiquity | no comments | no trackbacks

published 4 months ago (11.07.2009 12:12)

Cross-browser video support with HTML 5

Embedding video is easy in HTML 5, use the native <video> tag. Firefox 3.1+, Safari 4+ and Google Chrome (Windows) already have experimental support for it.

The HTML 5 spec does not specify which video format and codec should be used, so naturally ;-) the browser vendors have picked different formats. Getting videos to play cross-browser still is no problem, since the <video> tag can contain more than one source. So give an ogg and a quicktime version of the video, and all browsers currently supporting the <video> tag will be happy.

Example

The code

<video controls width="320" height="240">

  <!-- Firefox 3.1+, Google Chrome -->
  <source src="/files/swiss.ogg" type="video/ogg">

  <!-- Safari 4+, Google Chrome -->
  <source src="/files/swiss.mov" type="video/quicktime">

  <!-- All others (including Internet Explorer and Opera) -->
  Sorry, your browser doesn't seem to support the <code>video</code> element.

</video>

How to create the video formats (OS X)

Easy. Use Quicktime Player’s export feature (File > Export). But first get the xiph Quicktime Components to add .ogg support to Quicktime.

Posted in firefox, coding | Tags html5, ogg, quicktime, video | no comments | no trackbacks

published 7 months ago (28.03.2009 19:46)

Ubiquity is the shit!

Ubiquity is a Mozilla Labs add-on for Firefox. It’s a new way of interacting with the browser and web content. Imagine Quicksilver, but for everything that can be reached from the browser. Common examples are controllign the browser, translating text on a web page in-place, looking up an Google maps address in-place, you imagine. It let’s you throw out half of the other add-ons. Oh, and on the Mac, it integrates with Growl.

And it’s super-easy to extend with JavaScript!

Example – using is.gd to shorten URLs

I hacked this together using the pretty good documentation. The code takes the text selection (an URL) and shortens it via is.gd.

CmdUtils.CreateCommand({

  name: "is-gd",

  description: "Replaces the selected URL with a short URL generated with is.gd.",

  author: { name: "Phillip Oertel" },

  takes: {"url to shorten": noun_arb_text},

  execute: function(urlToShorten) {
    var baseUrl = "http://is.gd/api.php";
    var params  = {longurl: urlToShorten.text};
    jQuery.get( baseUrl, params, function( shortUrl ) {
      CmdUtils.setSelection( shortUrl );
    });
  }

});

I embedded the above script into this page—if you installed the Ubiquity add-on, Firefox will notify you. Install the script, then select an URL anywhere on the page or in the location bar, press Alt-Space and type “is-gd”. The selected text will be replaced with a shortended URL. Neat!

They really have easy administration and extension in mind—go to chrome://ubiquity/content/cmdlist.html to get an in-browser interface to Ubiquity. You can directly write the scripts in there. Oh, and did I mention it already ships with jquery ?

Posted in firefox, css & javascript, coding | no comments | no trackbacks

published about 1 year ago (03.05.2008 15:55)

Running Firefox 3 beta, howto

happy bookmarking

I’ve used Firefox 3 beta for over a month now. And I am very happy! Not only is it stable and runs a bit faster, the best thing is the seriously improved bookmarking. Bookmarks can now be tagged, and the whole thing comes with an imho well thought-out user interface. visit dria.org for a nice overview. so bookmarks finally become useful as a knowledge archive, you now actually find what you once bookmarked.

running a nightly build

Firefox 3 beta 5 (for OS X) crashed fairly regularly on my box, so I tried running off the nightly builds. So far, they have been more stable, the crashing is gone. Additional benefit: I can get daily updates by going to “Help” > “Check for updates”. Excellent!

You’ll find the latest Firefox 3pre build here.

Enabling Extensions

Once you are so far, most extensions stop working—not good at all. Most extensions have not been updated for Firefox 3, so Firefox disables them on startup. But most of them will work in Firefox 3 nevertheless, all you need to do is create the boolean user preference “extensions.checkCompatibility” and set it to false (type about:config in the URL-bar to access the user preferences).

Chromatabs extension

On a side note, try the chromatabs extension! It colors tabs with a color unique to the page displayed, so if you memorize your favorite sites’ colors, you’ll easily spot them in the tab bar.

Posted in firefox | Tags firefox 3 | no comments | no trackbacks

published about 1 year ago (23.04.2008 18:03)

Firefox 3 uses sqlite to store bookmarks (and most other things)

ever wanted to search your bookmarks with

SELECT * FROM moz_bookmarks WHERE title LIKE "%ruby%";

now you can:

in your firefox profile directory (~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/xxxx.default on a Mac), type:

# open db file
$ sqlite3 places.sqlite

# show available tables
sqlite> .tables

# set output to sql insert statements
sqlite> .mode insert

# send output to file "firefox_bookmarks" 
sqlite> .output firefox_bookmarks

sqlite> SELECT * FROM moz_bookmarks WHERE title LIKE "%ruby%";

# list other available commands & options
sqlite> .help

Or, if you want JSON output you can export all bookmarks via the GUI. Use Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks, click the rightmost icon in the top navigation and choose Export.

Posted in firefox, coding | Tags bookmarks, firefox, places, sql | no comments | no trackbacks

published about 1 year ago (24.11.2007 20:39)

Firefox LiveHTTPHeaders bugfix for Alt-L / @

the firefox LiveHTTPHeaders extension is a great tool for monitoring the http requests going on between your browser and a server—ideal for debugging requests or optimizing caching.

however, the extension has a small but very annoying bug, especially on Mac OS X. it’s sidebar shortcut is Alt-L, which is already occupied by the @ sign. so with this extension installed, you can’t type @s anymore. aaarrgh!

the bug is already (somewhat) fixed in CVS, but it doesn’t look like there’ll be an official release anytime soon. so i dove into the code, did the bare minimum to fix the problem, and made a new xpi. install the patched extension here: livehttpheaders-cvs-patched-071124.xpi.

i moved the sidebar shortcut to Shift-Cmd-J. ”!!?$ Shift-Cmd-J ???!!”, you ask?
“why from Alt-L to Shift-Cmd-J?” well, first, the CVS version already moved the command to Shift-Cmd-L. good. unfortunately Shift-Cmd-L (and Shift-Cmd-K) are already used by the firebug extension, so i moved the key leftwards to the first unoccupied one.

as mentioned above, i did the bare minimum to get the extension to work. no perfection here … but i hope it works for you, too!

Posted in firefox, css & javascript, coding | Tags debugging, firebug, headers, http, livehttpheaders | 1 comment

published over 4 years ago (30.01.2006 15:53)

why we love internet explorer so much

what’s wrong with this javascript?

function showDetailInNewWindow()
{
   // set new window properties
   top    = 200;
   left   = 250;
   width  = 680;
   height = 300;
   // ... proceed to open new window
}

the error message ie gave me: “not implemented, line 26, character 7”. in _which _of the included js files, you ask? well if it gave that information out, the error would be too easy to find, wouldn’t it?! and when you finally debugged which file it was, the line number was a couple of lines off.

this error message is as useful as asking your grandma’s parrot what was wrong with the code. except the parrot’s reply would be more intelligent.

2 hours lost. talk about efficient development. i’ll consider writing my front-ends in xul.

the error was (i figure): you shouldn’t use “top” inside a function. JS has all global vars in function scope as well, and ie allows you to omit “window” in some expressions. i.e. ie thought i was trying to say “window.top = 200”. which it

• should have just done
• complained that it’s a read-only property
• complained that the object window doesn’t have that (public) property

or maybe top is a completely reserved keyword, why didn’t it tell me???

of course i only had to resort to opening the details in a new browser window since IE first needed loads of hacks and javascript expressions to get the data table i am displaying to look it as i wanted, and then, second completely messed up the while document when dynamically embedding the detail information into the current page (“ajax”).

ie 6 is definitely web 1.0.

Posted in firefox, css & javascript, coding

published over 6 years ago (10.02.2004 00:00)

mozilla firefox

being a long-time user of the firebird (=firefox) web browser already, i had to incidently return to mozilla to appreciate just how much better this firefox thing is already. not even to mention microsoft internet explorer (what, you are still using that???). firebird is now available in version 0.8, renamed to firefox.

give it a try, you will not regret it (see also below "weapon of choice: Mozilla" for some starting tips).

also available from the same people: an email program that doesn't have any virus-autoinstallation, but instead many useful features, like very accurate spam filtering, safe message encryption and spell checking. creating great products is not necessarily about money …

Posted in firefox

published over 6 years ago (24.05.2003 00:00)

weapon of choice: Mozilla

Posted in firefox